The field of the disclosure relates generally to management of wireless communications, and more particularly, to wireless communications utilizing multiple numerology access zones.
Conventional wireless communication systems, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) and Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), operate in 4G networks and utilize technologies that implement a singular numerology, which is the combination of subcarrier spacing and symbol duration. LTE, for example, supports system bandwidths up to 20 MHz with a mostly fixed orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) numerology having 15 kHz spacing (with some limited exceptions) between OFDM tones/subcarriers. Due to recent advances in the silicon industry, however, 5G networks allow for simultaneous multiple numerology support, that is, multiple different carrier spacings and symbol durations, which enables multiple access zones to be optimized to meet a wide range of Quality of Service (QoS) requirements and deployment scenarios.
Having multiple access zones with different numerologies enables efficient transmission since numerology of each access zone can be tailored to a different traffic type having different QoS requirements. For example, wider subcarrier spacing along with shorter symbol duration enables low latency communication. Having a flexible numerology is also beneficial to support mobile units observing different propagation characteristics. For example, channel estimation accuracy is a function of the mobile speed and scattering characteristics of the channel. This requires adaptation of pilot signal densities according to the given propagation channel characteristics to improve channel estimation accuracy and link quality. In LTE, however, the 15 kHz subcarrier spacing is fixed and common to all user equipment (UE). Thus, conventional LTE system designs have resulted in increased overhead for some UEs, while limiting performance in other UEs.
Accordingly, it is desirable to be able to utilize the relatively new multiple numerology support capability offered by 5G, and in particular, 3GPP 5G New Radio (NR), access to increase efficiency of the communication without requiring significant structural modifications to network transmission systems. It would be further desirable to implement systems and methods that may quickly and efficiently determine whether a transmission is within a single access zone or a multiple access zone and, if a multiple access zone is detected, enable rapid switching between numerologies at the receiver end, while still avoiding cross-numerology interference, but while also reducing transmission latency.